One-day series shaping as a contest of a different hue

Lynn McConnell

December 24, 2002

At last a forum for flashing Indian blades to be seen at their best as New Zealand prepares to face the onslaught of batsmen freed from foreign conditions in the National Bank One-Day International Series, starting on a superb-looking Eden Park pitch on Boxing Day.

New Eden Park groundsman Mark Perham, the man who won high praise for the consistently high quality wickets he produced at Carisbrook, is delighted with the way his portable pitch has come up for this game.

The pitch has good grass cover which was drying off today in the heat of Auckland's sun which should have it close to perfect in two days time.

That will not only suit the visitors, as the New Zealanders have also had to cope with the difficult batting conditions and some outstanding batting may be just around the corner from both teams.

While there is always the incentive of victory, there is more resting on this series for both sides as they look to prepare to end the series in optimum shape for the World Cup.

Adding to the satisfaction of both sides as they shake-off the after-effects of the dramatics of their Test series, were good quality nets at the ground, which were warmly welcomed by the players.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said there was some confidence for his side as a result of their Test wins but it was largely confined to the bowlers.

"Really, it [confidence] counts for very little. I've been in a situation where I've lost Test matches and I've looked forward to changing forms of the game because you take confidence into the new form of the game than what you would if we were playing a third Test," he said.

New Zealand go into the series knowing there are some key areas of their game that they have to address, and these include working the ball around for singles when the spinners are in operation, a problem area for the majority of the batsmen.

"We've been working very hard on that, and just that general efficiency in every department.

"Our fielding will have to be good if we want to win the World Cup so we want that to be sharp during this series.

"Basically, the message is, efficiency has to improve, and continue to improve, looking forward to South Africa," he said.

Everyone was aware of the new challenge posed by the Indian batsmen and the enticing fielding options that they are capable of taking advantage of. Virender Sehwag has been restrained by conditions in New Zealand so it can only be imagined how much his frustration has built up.

Sachin Tendulkar has thrived in one-day action here in the past while Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh are all capable of tearing attacks apart.

Adding experience and strength to the bowling attack will be Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble. Fleming knows full well what to expect of them.

"They have had a lot of success and are quality bowlers, so if they are introduced by John Wright that will introduce another dimension to their team.

"I guess that the benefit from our point of view is that we have seen a lot of them in one-day cricket, we have got footage and we know how to play them on paper, but doing that against quality players is another thing," he said.

Then there's the personal factor. Fleming looks at Eden Park and says it hasn't provided him with the amount of success he would like. It's one of his own goals to put that right. He'll be opening the batting with Nathan Astle.

New Zealand, in wanting to look at some options before they name their World Cup team, have not been able to name their strongest team, so the biggest challenge they have is ensuring their top-order batsmen produce a dominant innings or two.

The teams for the match are:

New Zealand: (from) Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Mathew Sinclair, Craig McMillan, Lou Vincent, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori, Kyle Mills, Daryl Tuffey, Shane Bond, Paul Hitchcock.

India: (from) Sourav Ganguly (captain), Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay Bangar, Rahul Dravid, Harbhajan Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, V V S Laxman, Ashish Nehra, Parthiv Patel, Rakesh Patel, Virender Sehwag, Javagal Srinath, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh.

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